Specer Press--Independent Thinking

"We turned down a substantial amount of business since January of this year," Stephen says. "Some of it was contract work from existing clients, and some of it was new work. So to service both of these needs, we decided to add new equipment."

Before adding any equipment, however, Spencer decided to learn from past mistakes. The last time the company needed to expand web capacity, it installed a Heidelberg Harris M-3000 "Sunday" press—without giving much consideration to the bindery. It was a course of action that the printing company later regretted.

"When we installed our first M-3000 we tried to schedule the bindery to coincide, but the bindery slipped, and we blew our brains out in here for four solid months because we could not get the product out the back door," John remembers. "So this time we said, 'Let's do it the other way around.' "

Finishing First
Instead of shopping for additional M-3000s, the Spenlinhauers decided to invest in new finishing equipment. They made their purchases at the massive PRINT 97 show in Chicago, signing a deal for five Pacesetter 1000 stitchers from Heidelberg Finishing Systems.

Thus far, Spencer has installed two of the five machines. The company is adding the third Pacesetter this month, with the fourth coming next month and the fifth arriving in January of 1999.

The first two Pacesetter 1000s went on-line in June—with much fanfare courtesy of Heidelberg. As things turned out, the first of the Pacesetters that Spencer installed was the 50th Pacesetter installed worldwide.

To mark the milestone, representatives from Heidelberg Finishing visited Spencer the day the Pacesetter ran its first job: the Grill Lovers Catalog. The Heidelberg executives presented Spencer with gifts, and Ed Young, vice president of bindery sales, offered words of encouragement to Spencer's employees.

"To John and his staff and everybody who works in the finishing area, you need to know that Heidelberg really appreciates the partnership and we wish you all the luck in the world in the start-up of this new machine," he said, standing in front of the Pacesetter.